Was Jose Luis Barbero responsible for abusing dolphins and did allegations against him lead to his suicide? Video screen shot.

Questions are being asked in lieu of the sudden death of renown Spanish dolphin trainer, Jose Luis Barbero, who this weekend was found dead of an apparent suicide. The 59 year old man’s death comes after video (see below) purporting to show him kicking dolphinssurfaced.

According to a report via WSB-TV, Barbero was en route to take up a new position as Georgia Aquariam’s vice president in Atlanta when the man went missing.

His body would eventually be found in a black Peugot 407 at Palma de Mallorca airport parking lot Saturday after an intensive four-day search reports Spain’sDiario de Mallorca.

That said questions are being asked whether the man’s death is related to allegations that he had abused dolphins? Whether the man succumbed to feelings of guilt and distress or whether in fact he may have been harmed as a result of recent allegations he had been forced to reckon with.

So merciless had threats against the man come to be on social media after the leaking of a video of him purporting to abuse dolphins that the trainer’s new employer had postponed his starting date.

Condemnation against the man including death threats against the trainer’s family. So unrelenting were threats that the man’s wife checked into hospital because of stress.

In one facebook posting defending himself the trainer told: ‘I believe a response is needed to this brutal and cowardly campaign against my profession.

‘I can only say from my lawyers’ recommendations that this video is a montage created to provoke a campaign challenging my professionalism over 35 years.’

Offered CEO Mike Leven of Georgia Aquarium: ‘It was with sadness, outrage and frustration that I received the news this morning that Jose Luis Barbero was found dead in Spain,’

‘He was not given the right or the privilege to be considered innocent until proven guilty, a principle I hold dear. His death is ultimately, unnecessary and unjust.’

Nevertheless activists have maintained their assault on the man, having released a blurry video allegedly showing Barbero and other dolphin trainers kicking and hitting dolphins at Marineland Mallorca, where he was a director.

Added Leven: ‘I hope the death of Jose Luis Barbero teaches those who were quick to condemn him a lesson about being hasty to charge and indict.’

Prior to Barbero’s body being found, Georgia aquarium reports 11Alivehired a former FBI agent to head to Spain to investigate his disappearance.

Leven would also disclose that the aquarium hired forensic experts to analyze the roughly edited video, which appeared ‘doctored.‘ He said the aquarium would not determine Barbero’s future with the company until after a thorough investigation.

Told the aquarium in a statement: ‘We have a zero tolerance policy against the mistreatment of animals and continue to investigate every aspect of this matter.’

Marineland Mallorca has since denied the abuse allegations and plans to take legal action against the animal rights group.

TRENDING TODAY

Walter Alf

Many people defend
that the video showing abuse in Marineland, Majorca, has been manipulated, but
everybody knows that is not true. Only the relatives, friends and workers state
that it has been manipulated because the judge hired by the proper José Luis
Barbero said it was. I would like to know where all those people were when the
trainer appeared just with his lawyer. They never said anything until he was
already dead. What a shame.

The judge said that
the voice did not match the images in the first video, but in order to dismiss
those statements, another video where these two elements match has been
released. Moreover, in other images where we can clearly see other trainers who
are still currently working in the park, we can appreciate how minutes and
seconds are not fast forwarded. This is another failed theory stated by the
judge, who claimed that the images in the videos were fast forwarded to make
their movements look like blows.

We are sharing the
video again to make people see that there is no manipulation behind this video.
We are standing up against the bosses and the management who allowed this. They
want to remove it from YouTube, but we won’t allow it; they want to let animal
abuse continue, but we won’t stop; we will continue sharing and fighting. ANIMAL
LIBERATION

About

I think the idea to start “Scallywag and Vagabond.” (SCV) originates from my myriad background and the many years I have spent in preferred cafes and brasseries extolling the virtues and subtle intricacies of ‘being’ as the Beaujolais ran, the cigarette wafted and the gentleman to my side pontificated while spraying himself with a deftly tied cravat and sun crested idolatry.’

I grew up in Australia where as a young man one was obliged to become a hero of sorts. A master swimmer, fighter of causes, ideals and disheveled denizen of aesthetics, and more often a carefree ‘larrikin’ who would occasionally poke his sun bronzed nose at authority and convention Read More